A network device may include a forwarding board and an interface board. A plurality of forwarding boards may be deployed in a network device in a manner of active/standby redundancy to improve the reliability of forwarding.
When active/standby switching of forwarding boards is needed, I/O buses between the interface board and the forwarding boards may be physically switched over. That is, a physical connection of an I/O bus between the interface board and a forwarding board which is downgraded to be a standby forwarding board may be disconnected, and a physical connection of an I/O bus between the interface board and a forwarding board which is newly-promoted to be an active forwarding board may be newly established. The newly-promoted active forwarding board may also perform initiate configurations to the I/O bus having the newly established physical connection.